The Road To Hell
by DarkestAngellic
Summary: You only want what's best for your baby girl. You only want the Planet to be a cleaner, safer place for her to live in. But in making it a better place for her, you take away the only thing she wants. Her father. Please note that Barret is not a perfect father in this story, so if you prefer happy-family things, do not read.


_****__**Disclaimer: **__**I own nothing from FFVII, not the settings, not the characters, not the names. Nothing. I own absolutely nothing. It is all the property of the wonderful Square Enix.**_

* * *

You should have known this day would come. You should have seen the signs. But the road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions and you've only wanted the best for her. By the time you realise something is wrong, it's far too late to change anything. You started this mess and your daughter will finish it.

* * *

It started off with simple little things like family and friends gathering together one day of every month to catch up and unwind. You're in Costa on the first instance, striking up arrangements for oil shipments across the Planet. It's that minute change in season that brings with it the unpredictable weather, the storms, and your phone call is to break bad news.

_"Hi Daddy!"_

"Hello baby girl! Listen, sweets, Daddy's not gonna be able to make it tomorrow."

_"… Oh. Uhm… will I say you on Thursday, then?"_

"No can do, baby. Weather's real bad for a while. Tell Tifa and Spiky I'm sorry, yah?"

_"O-okay. Be careful, Daddy."_

"I always am, baby girl." The line dies before anything else can be said and you curse a blue streak about the weather interference. But it's fine, you know. Baby girl knows what you would have said.

But you don't know the seven year old on the other end of the phone sniffles when she puts the receiver down, "I love you, Daddy" left unsaid. You don't know she spends the day crying under the belief you hung up on her. Tifa and Cloud swear not to tell you about her tears.

* * *

Tifa starts teaching her how to play piano. She's a natural, and you're proud as punch to see her dainty form perched on that stool and small hands brushing over ivory keys to summon forth auditory magic. She hugs you tight when she's finished, and you put it down to being missed. Between Yuffie's loud screeching and the clapping and praise from everyone else, you miss the quiet plea of _"please don't leave again"_mumbled into your chest.

And so you miss the pain in earnest eyes when you leave the following week. You promise to be back soon, to come visit and bring home a present, but the damage is done. Your baby girl thinks you've ignored her.

* * *

Three school plays, five choir practices, one solo performance and two Sports Days you miss out on due to your work and travel commitments. Due to your attempts at arranging deals and finding better fuel sources for future consumption. You're a smart man, you know oil won't last forever. But you're not observant enough to see that in all eleven filmed events she searched for you, face crumpling in disappointment when you weren't found.

You think it's fine. You've explained to her already that Daddy's a busy man. She's said she understands. There's no problem, or so you think.

* * *

Tifa and Cloud voice their concerns about your frequent absence in her life. You say it'll be fine. Tifa says she gets upset, you counter that she's overemotional during her Unmentionable time of the month. Cloud says she calls him Dad, you punch him. She's _your_ daughter, not his. Well maybe you should start acting like one. Maybe he should move the fuck on. Tifa asks you to leave, and the girl is silent, hidden at the top of the stairs, tears on her cheeks unnoticed even to herself as you slam the front door behind you.

* * *

For her fourteenth birthday you buy her an iPod, unaware that she doesn't like the colour any longer. She prefers the soft blue of a sky with fluffy white clouds too thin to hold the threat of rain. She only ties her hair in the pink ribbon in memory of Aerith these days, not because of the colour.

* * *

Her first boyfriend, to your surprise and yours alone, _isn't_ Denzel. Instead it's a geeky little punk with bad skin and glasses. You don't like the little computer whiz-kid. Unbeknownst to you she kisses him anyway, on Valentine's Day after he takes her out for a sweet little picnic.

* * *

She gets into a fight at school. The headmaster suspends her.

"What do you think you're playing at, young lady?"

"She was saying mean things!"

"What would your mother think?"

"I don't know! She's dead!"

"I'm disappointed in you, baby girl."

"Why?! Because of _one_ fight? I've been _good_! All my report cards say I'm a hard-working pupil at the top of my class!"

"So that means you can blacken a classmate's eye for no reason?"

"_She called Tifa a slut!_"

"Don't you yell at me, young lady!"

She runs upstairs with an annoyed shout, slamming the door behind her. Vincent is the one to follow, not you.

Cid confronts you next, tries to tell you that you'e hurting her, that you're losing her. You tell him him he's stupid and should butt out of what isn't his business. She'll come around, she's just being rebellious like every other teenager.

* * *

She stops sending you letters and cards when you miss her seventeenth birthday. On Father's Day it's Cloud she gives a present and makes dinner for. It's _his_ birthday cake she bakes. And still you do your job, determined to make the world a better place for her to live in.

* * *

When you find out _Rufus Shinra_ is paying her, you're beyond furious. Shin-Ra is the reason her Mum's dead. Shin-Ra fucked up the Planet to begin with! They're the cause of everyone's problems to this day! But then she opens up the orphanage she'd planned for with Denzel since they were kids.

**_A home for the bereaved and abandoned._**

That's what the sign says. And it's only then that the penny drops, like a slap to the face and a blow to gut. You've been an absentee father, one who didn't even pay Tif and Spike to look after your girl while you went about your own business.

* * *

A few months after she's settled into the demands of running the place, you appear at the front door, uninvited and hoping to apologise, to make amends and start over. Denzel answers, and you notice the silver band on his ring finger.

"She doesn't want to see you."

"I want to talk to my daughter, Denzel."

"You're not her father. You're just a paternal figure who couldn't even step up to the mark."

"But -"

"Go home Barret." And there she is, your baby girl all grown up. She's got paint smudged on her shirt and glitter on one cheek, hair loose down her back and a _ring_ on her finger. Married. You hadn't even known. You weren't invited. There's fire in her eyes and ice in her voice.

"Go home, Barret. You're not welcome here." And she closes the door on you, pulling the curtains closed on your world in the process.

* * *

You only wanted what was best for Marlene, only wanted to make the Planet a better, cleaner, safer place for her to live in.

What you didn't realise until it was too late was that she only ever wanted one thing - for her Daddy to be there.

The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. Now you know what that means. In trying to look out for your baby girl, you pushed her aside.

You _abandoned _her.

But _Marlene _walked away from _you_.

* * *

**_A/N: _****_I know this probably won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it does seem like a logical path the future could shift to given that in AC Marlene is staying at Seventh Heaven with Tifa and Cloud. While I haven't played the OG of FFVII, a good friend of mine has told me that at some point in the game, Marlene mentions to someone (possibly Tifa or Aerith?) that Barret isn't around much. This suggests that he IS an absentee father, at least in some aspects, therefore this fic came to life. And yes, before anyone asks, I know what it is like to have an absentee parent. If I didn't, I wouldn't write something like this out of respect for those with absentee parents whom I could offend from lack of knowledge on such a delicate issue._**


End file.
